This week consisted of Combatives in the morning and Marksmanship training in the afternoon. Since few of the family members who actually might be reading this know much about the Army let me explain combatives. It's a fighting style adopted and modified by the Army. It incorporates wrestling moves and some martial arts moves. For a guy that had never done wrestling and had one hour of martial arts training I was definitely a fish out of water. By the end of the week I got my feet wet enough to win 2 out of 3 matches against another platoon.

The video above shows a combatives match. It's not me fighting, but it gives you an idea of what we did this week.

But I'm jumping ahead a bit.--Let's talk about Monday.

So we've found our house in Elgin/Fletcher that we wanted to buy and had a closing date of June 30th. When I approached the folks in charge of me to get the time off I needed on the 30th I wasn't getting anywhere. Sure they were sympathetic, but not enough to grant me the time off I needed. It tends to be a theme with folks I deal with. I'm not sure what's on the schedule for the 30th but it seemed to be important.

I didn't know it at the time but while I was trying to get things going with the chain of command our realtor was trying to get things straigtened out with the lending company. There had been a bit of misleading conversation with them regarding interest rates during our application process. Our realtor was not happy with the way it was being handled and stepped in to let them know what an imposition the miscommunication was. The results of that conversation involved the lending company offering an unprecedented deal to assist us and "make things right" but only if we could close on Wednesday.

I said yes.

On Wednesday our realtor was scheduled to have a root canal and wouldn't be available for the final 'showdown.' So we even got everyone to push things back to Thursday. On Thursday morning Jacob and Chrissy Roecker assumed ownership of 165 NE Coyote Drive in Fletcher Oklahoma.

Despite the closing the school's schedule didn't allow me to go to the house until Saturday morning. I woke up early and made a trip to Walmart. I bought toilet paper, paper towels, ketchup, mustard, and a number of other nick-nacks. The plan was to meet Katie and Jacob (The Hovans) and head to OKC to pick up their mountain bikes. On the way back we'd get a grill. They were going to pick me up at the house on the way so I had to hurry and get the groceries home. I didn't stop to eat at the DFAC on base. I planned on having a bowl of cereal at the house once I got there.When I inventoried all the things I needed I noticed that I didn't have a spoon. Jacob and Katie came over and we left. I sat in the back seat with a growly stomach trying to suppress my grouchy attitude. We got their mountain bikes and then headed home. I finally got a burger to eat at a Wendy's (Good burger too) and then we kept driving south west.

We stopped in Chickasha and tried to buy a grill at the walmart there. Instead we got stuff to build one, bought plasticware, and headed back to the house.

At the house we snacked, and then when for a bike ride. We didn't find too many trails off the roads we went on, but we did find a lot of bumpy roads (gotta justify those front shocks somehow). The drivers we shared the roads with were courteous and we had a blast. The weather was hot, but had a perfect breeze while riding.

yard. Actually Jacob, who's a landscape guy inWhen we got back to the house we watched a movie and then built a bit of a grill in the back the real world built it for me. It's waaaay better than I would have done. It's just some left over bricks from the yard and then a bit of a cut out on the storm cellar. Since the storm cellar kinda-cuts into the functionality of the back yard this allows us to take some of that functionality back. It worked great! Dinner was good.

Somewhere in the process of making dinner I looked at the box of Frosted Flakes and noticed something I hadn't noticed before. They came with a promotional Indiana Jones spoon! ARGH! All of my grumbly stomach would have been avoided if I had bothered to read the box!

The evening concluded with something that seems to be common around here--a nice sunset. No photo can ever encapsulate how awesome sunsets really are. This one's not bad. But it's no where near the way it really looked yesterday. Combatives has made my nose a bit tender. It's days like this Saturday that make up for it.When we were buying the house I called the town to the south and asked them if we were in their town. They said no. When I called the town to the north I asked them if we were in their town. They said no. It seems that our property gets mail from the Fletcher post office, but we essentially live no where. It seems though that the acre of land our kids will spend the next few years on will do a lot to prepare us for heaven.

In any army school you live in the barracks. Most folks don't understand what a barracks room looks like. The quality of some barracks compared to others varies quite differently as well. To put it simply it's somewhere between a prison cell, a motel room, and a dorm room. Someone smarter than I am can make the graph of those things. I just know that when I walk into the door I see a mix of all three.

My roommate for this stage of adventure is a young man named David Sherman, who graduated from Clemson. He's low maintenance, and a good guy. There's just two of us in the room and we both feel pretty lucky. Most folks have 3-4 people in their rooms.

This week we were kept busy inprocessing for the school. Somehow the Army didn't quite keep my digital dental records and so I had to start from scratch. That was an annoying three hours waiting in line to get my teeth x-rayed. I did manage to get it done though and so I wont have to worry about it again.

It's not very surprising to realize that after nearly two years of being around my family full time--I miss them. So I decided to adopt some of my fellow students and make us a family. I started with Jacob Snyder. When we noticed that we both had the same name we developed a story to go along with it. Mom and dad had trouble having kids, so they adopted me. Then you showed up and they felt like they had gotten things right and named you Jacob. Jacob Snyder is the "good son" while I got treated as the red-headed step child.

Having a brother is great... but it still didn't feel like a family. So we needed to adopt a sister that would help us complete the scheme of things. So we adopted Katie Richesin. She was the quietest one in the squad. So the story goes: Katie's our sister and she's quite because of how domaneering we are and how mean we were to her growing up. Ironically, as soon as she accepted the fact that she was adopted into a family she wasn't quiet any more. In fact she's got quite a complimentary personality. She's the perfect addition to this made up family--and we're glad to have her.

Jacob Snyder is from Missouri--the only state where it was legal to kill Mormons until the 1970's. He drives a blue Toyota truck, is a good speaker, listener, and friend. Katie graduated from the Citadel and enjoyed some time in Africa doing humanitarian work and research for a project. There's a lot to her that's underneath the surface and we keep telling her that she's gotta find the guy that loves her for all that's there. We also been having a bit of fun practicing saying "Rukungiri." The name of the town where she spent time in Africa.

Well "the family" needed a name. So we started shopping around and the best one we could find was Chrissy's maiden name: Hovan. There's no one else here at school with it, it's easy to say, spell, and sounds cool.

The family decided that we were going hiking this weekend and took along a few other folks. Five of us all together hiked what they call "mountains" here and had a blast. We saw a tarantula, a cave, adventure, and fish. At the top of a rock there was a seasonal puddle with some very small fish in it. I've emailed a professor at USU to see if anyone knows the name of the creatures... I thought they were cool!

We found a cave full of daddy long leg spiders -- there were so many of them on the ceiling that their legs looked like fur. It was a bit creepy -- but still really cool.

Being away from the kids gives me a chance to go and have adventures. It's important to keep busy while away. I've put the highlights together for this blog but there was a lot more to this week than just making a family and hiking.

I'm glad to be here with these folks, doing the things we're doing. I'll let you all know how it goes.

The blog's title is semi-ironic, obscure, and designed to be interesting the first time it's read. After that it looses its savor and becomes stale quickly.

Well there's a lot of information about the family on Chrissy's blog about the kids... but it's my responsibility to write something of myself for others. So I'm going to start this blog, it will probably be the most unpopular blog on blogspot. It will probably not be updated, and die.

Unless I find a way to have adventures, write about them and have a reason to share them with others. So I had an adventure. On Thursday morning I packed up the Ford Focus full of clothes, gadgets, and gear and headed off to Lawton Oklahoma. It was a bit of a fun adventure. There was no one to laugh as I sung to chessie girly songs on the drive. Right around Kansas the roads got real nice and reminded me of the German autobahn.

Yeah, you know those nice roadways in Europe with no speed limit. Well, the ones in Kansas may look similar, but there was a speed limit and someone decided to remind me of it. It was a bit of a hefty fine, but there's consequences to our actions and I got some consequences.

DON'T SPEED IN KANSAS!

Friday I arrived at our new house and met the builder. He's a nice man that is building all of the homes in the development, ours is about number 8 or 10. There's quite a few more to go and so he'll be in the area as things need to get touched up on the house. There's still a few more items left on the list of things to do before closing, and we've already started the running list for after closing.

Our storm cellar is in, right where it should be and there's a nice afternoon breeze that caresses the shady front porch. I got to sit there for a long while watching the view of rolling farmland and waving trees. I really hope to move in there soon.

The 'About Me' Section

This is the blog of Jacob F. Roecker, a father of three, and husband to a terrific wife. I graduated from Utah State University with a degree in Speech Communication in May of 08. I was also awarded USU's "Man of the Year" for 2008. I have served in the Army in various capacities since 1997 and have deployed twice in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. During my time in the Army my achievements have been recognized with several military awards including the Bronze Star Medal.

My family and I currently live between two small towns north east of Fort Sill, Oklahoma where I will be serving for the next few years.

The title of this blog is constructed from the idea that there is a better life after this one. If that life in the hereafter tastes better it will probably be because there's time to let the bread rise. Here, life seems so busy--yet fun--that it's like an unleavened recess.